'Through the Night:' A love letter to single mothers and caregivers
POV will release the film on May 20 and it is a documentary about love and resistance by Afro-Dominican director, Loira Limbal.
What is the role of caregivers in our society? Who cares for caregivers?
Those questions are answered by Loira Limbal (Hip Hop Style) in her second documentary presented by American Documentary and premiering Monday, May 20 at 10 p.m. ET. It will then be available streaming through June at pov.org.
Through the Night is an intimate portrait of three working mothers whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare in New Rochelle, New York: one mother who works the night shift at a pediatric hospital; another who works three jobs to support her family; and a woman who for more than two decades has cared for children whose parents have nowhere else to turn.
It also shows the multiplicity of "women's work"-paid, underpaid and unpaid; emotional and physical; domestic and career-oriented-all while negotiating the terms of a dignified existence under the yoke of racism, sexism and capitalism in the United States.
Limbal takes the viewer into the world of Dee's Tots, a vibrant daycare that caters to all kinds of family situations and scenarios, with subtle strokes and reconfiguring the kinship relationships that mark the employment landscape. Children are picked up and dropped off by tired but grateful parents, many of whom come from night shifts or long hours of work, sometimes at multiple jobs.
RELATED CONTENT
The families Deloris serves are explicit in their need for her and her service; the caregiver is the glue that holds them together, an integral piece of the puzzle that helps make their daily schedules possible.
The documentary is populated by hard-working, compassionate and deeply caring women who put faces and names to the countless working-class black and Latina mothers who support their families in this country.
"Through the Night is my love letter to single mothers and caregivers. I was raised by an incredible cast of Black and Latina women who performed miraculous acts of resilience, creativity and subversion on a daily basis."
"Unfortunately, when I look around me in our popular culture, these women are rarely seen and, when they do appear, they are depicted in a reductionist way that often amounts to caricatures. My vision as a filmmaker is to flood our popular culture with beautifully complex portrayals of the lives of working class women of color so that we have new looks and new ways of seeing ourselves," says director Loira Limbal.
LEAVE A COMMENT:
Join the discussion! Leave a comment.